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Eight Dates With Death: Black Ghosts #1

Hello, fiends and welcome to my new indie horror review series Eight Dates With Death! I am super excited to be sharing this series with you as I have had the idea floating around in my horror obsessed brain for a while but only now I have had time to get my idea’s down onto paper. So, let’s begin.

Two weeks ago I received a package in the mail that changed my life with independent horror. You may have heard of them, Wild Eye Releasing a popular independent film distributor who is mostly known for their gory horror flicks sent me a box of death containing eight films that best represent horror from their company. So, to say that I was super stoked is an understatement as I possibly squealed with delight, my eyes bulging hungrily as I eyeballed all the horror awesomeness before me. For one thing, I couldn’t believe that when I opened the box that Wild Eye sent me contained eight titles! I was expecting at least one or two but I received eight titles for which I am very grateful for. So without further ado let me introduce you to the first installment of Eight Dates With Death: Black Ghosts.

I am aware that with independent horror that not all films are going to be great. Indie horror is very hit or miss and unfortunately for Black Ghost is was a total miss. I’m going to start off my review by saying that even a day after watching the film my mind is still pretty fucking fried. I’m still scratching at my pulsating brain trying to make sense of what my eyes witnessed, to no avail. I hate having to give negative reviews but it is my job as a reviewer, to be honest as so many reviewers sometimes feel awkward about doing. Very understandable.

So, where to begin?

Black Ghost is written and directed by Andreas Marwell and features performances by Sandra Karinsdottor and Kaarina Lindblom. The plot centers around Maya a woman who in attempts to reunite with her dead girlfriend evokes malevolent forces into the realm of the living through occult rituals resulting in her opening a portal to hell where she is left to fight with insidious angry spirits in order to survive. We all know that when a film centers around black magic that the outcome is never going to be pretty right? Well, you haven’t seen anything this fucked up until you watch Black Ghost.

To say the least Black Ghosts is a head fuck. There is little plot and the plot that we are given is even more confusing. I tried so hard to give the film my full attention and for the first half an hour I was fully aware of the film even though I hardly understood anything that was going on. After that half an hour though I was in la-la land so awful was the storytelling. For a supposed horror film I really don’t know where Black Ghost fits into the genre. Yes, it has some cool spooky factors a positive that I will get into a bit later but for now let’s just get the negatives out of the way.

When it comes to creativity Black Ghosts literally sinks into its own pit of lameness. I know, that sounds really harsh but sometimes the truth hurts and this case Black Ghosts is a terrible movie. There is practically no story, the acting is pretty bad and just the whole film was put together ass backwards in my opinion. I cannot tell you how sick I am of hearing the name Lucy being uttered. I even went to bed with the name fluttering in my head. LUCY, LUCY BLOODY FUCKING LUCY! ARGH! But in all seriousness, the film was boring and plain mundane.

Now for the positives. Don’t be shocked. There are positives to this movie, there may not be many but there are a few and I believe in giving a fair review so here we go. The ghosts. Wow, they were pretty creepy. Admittedly the black swirly mass looked cheap and unrealistic but the faces of the entities were pretty unnerving. They were literally unsettling to look at. Pale and deviant beings, kudos to the special effects team for that. The sounds they made were also very nopey; low guttural grunts that made my skin crawl, twisted and contorted features that continuously changed whenever they spoke, the speech was creeping and drawn out. It took about half an hour for the beings to actually complete a sentence. A bit of a nuisance which led to the film losing its atmosphere pretty quickly. If the film has not featured the ghosts then I really don’t where this film would have ended up. I also enjoyed the ritual scenes. It was intriguing to watch a ritual being performed but then again the overused repetitiveness ended up ruining the experience for me.

One thing that I am very impressed about is the artwork on the DVD’s themselves. They are pretty cool and look great when combing through your catalog of grotesqueness on your shelf.

To some up Black Ghosts I would have to say that it is a surreal trip into the mind of madness. This film takes psychological to a whole new level and I personally think that it didn’t deliver the horror as intended. It’s a shame because the ghost themselves had the potential to scare and if the plot had been reworked the whole film could have gone in a more budding direction instead of it being so convoluted. In saying that this is just my opinion and what may not work for me may work for you and so give it a shot if you think you can handle it.